Canada

The union for workers at the Port of Vancouver’s grain export terminals is warning that sliding safety protocols at grain silos could lead to a devastating explosion.

Meanwhile, high volumes of grain dust — more explosive than coal dust — can escalate an ignition into an explosion.

Last year, there were nine grain explosions across the United States. At least two were caused by smouldering grain and another two were caused by equipment malfunction.

In Canada, 11 fire-related incidents have been reported to Employment and Social Development Canada since 2015 by federally regulated employers.

Ontario's Ministry of Labour published a news release in late May alerting the public that a Toronto businessman and his private school were fined $410,000 for failing to comply with orders to pay wages.

At the time, those fines were already two weeks past due with the courts.

Anchuan Jiang and his company Ontario International College were convicted under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) in March for not paying nearly $185,000 in wages owed to 14 employees as ordered. On top of the fines, there was also a 25 per cent victim surcharge. Both were supposed to be paid in Toronto's provincial offences court by May 12.

But they weren't.

As of last week, Jiang hadn't paid a cent of the $580,730 in fines and surcharges, according to Toronto's court services division.

The Competition Bureau said on Monday that it is suing the online food delivery company DoorDash and its Canadian subsidiary for allegedly misleading consumers by advertising its services at a lower price than what customers actually end up paying.

"A Bureau investigation found that consumers were unable to purchase food and other items at the advertised price on DoorDash's websites and mobile applications due to the addition of mandatory fees at checkout," said the readout from the agency.

"This practice is commonly known as drip pricing and is deceptive because consumers are not presented with an attainable price upfront."

The bureau filed an application with the Competition Tribunal, which handles cases related to Canada's competition laws.

Smoke from wildfires burning in central Canada was visible in the skies over the UK this weekend.

Pembina Institute finds that while the technology to electrify GTHA trucks is ready, what's missing is strong policy

MONTREAL — Unifor says DHL Express Canada locked out workers just after midnight today as the two sides failed to reach a contract deal, injecting more labour turmoil into the country's parcel delivery market.

The union, which represents 2,100 truck drivers, couriers and warehouse workers across seven provinces, says they went on strike in response at 11 a.m. ET.

Unifor says the German-owned carrier is proposing to change the driver pay system and planning to use replacement workers before legislation banning them comes into effect on June 20.

The decarbonized doublespeak may not be new but it was jarring coming from the mouth of our new PM, who has an undeniable grasp of the impacts of hydrocarbons but nevertheless talked about “decarbonized barrels” at the press conference following the first ministers’ meeting. And it was particularly painful considering the venue — a province under a state of emergency where more than 15,000 people have fled wildfires.